Mikey Madison has won the best actress Oscar in Los Angeles for her role in Anora.

The actor, who will be 26 later this month, is the ninth youngest woman to take the prize, for her performance as the titular sex worker who falls for the immature son of a Russian billionaire in Sean Baker’s comedy-drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.

In his review, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw praised Madison as “terrific” in the role, adding that “she owns the screen”. Baker wrote the role for the young actor, whose highest-profile film roles before Anora were bit parts in a Scream film, and playing a member of Charles Manson’s cult in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

“This is very surreal,” said Madison on stage. “I grew up in LA but Hollywood always felt so far for me. To be standing in this room is really incredible.”

She thanked “my mom and my dad and sister and little brother and and twin brother, Miles, for being my best friend – not that you have a choice”, as well as the community of Brighton Beach.

Madison went on to echo her sentiments at the Baftas, saying that she wanted to “recognise and honour the sex worker community. I will continue to support you and be an ally.”

She explained further than meeting “all the incredible women” was one of the “highlights of the experience”.

“This is a dream come true,” she concluded. “Or am I going to wake up tomorrow?”

Madison beat frontrunner Demi Moore – nominated for body horror The Substance – to the Oscar, as well as fellow nominees Fernanda Torres, Cynthia Erivo and Karla Sofía Gascón. Moore’s run of awards in the lead-up to the Oscars was unbroken until Madison unexpectedly won the Bafta for best actress a fortnight ago.

She followed that with the Independent Spirit award for best actress. Anora’s gathering of momentum was also noticeable at the Writers Guild of America awards and the Producers Guild of America awards in the US, where it won best picture.

The 97th Academy Awards are taking place in Los Angeles.

Read more about the 2025 Oscars:

• Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay

• Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña win supporting prizes

• No Other Land wins best documentary andFlow wins best animated feature

Adrien Brody has won the Academy Award for best actor for his role in Brady Corbet’s post-war epic The Brutalist.

In 2003, Brody became the youngest ever winner of the same award, when he took the prize for his role in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, aged 29 years, 343 days.

Now 51, Brody’s win on Sunday means he retains that record; his key competitor for the award this time round was Timothée Chalamet, 22 years his junior, for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Brody’s win puts him into the elite ranks of actors who have a 100% win rate at the Oscars from two or more nominations – Vivien Leigh, Hilary Swank, Kevin Spacey, Luise Rainer, Christoph Waltz, Helen Hayes and Mahershala Ali.

“Thank you got for this blessed life,” said Brody, taking to the podium. “If I may just humbly begin by giving thanks for the tremendous outpouring of love that I felt from this world and every individual that has treated me with respect and appreciation.

“I feel so fortunate,” he continued. “Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous and in certain moments it is, but the one thing that I’ve gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective. No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away.”

Brody went on to thank Corbet and his wife and co-writer Mona Fastvold “for what you’ve done for independent film and for your beautiful spirit and for giving your space to existence this triumph of a work.”

He then paid tribute to his “amazing partner”, the fashion designer Georgina Chapman, “who has not only reinvigorated my own self-worth, but my sense of value and my values” and to her “beautiful children, Dash and India”.

“I know this has been a rollercoaster,” he said, referring perhaps to their father, the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, “but thank you for accepting me into your life. Popsie’s coming home a winner!”

As the wrap-up music began to play, Brody requested they stop so he could thank his parents for creating “just such a strong foundation of respect and of kindness and a wonderful spirit … and the strength to pursue this dream.”

Brody concluded on a more political note, saying that he was on stage “once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of anti-semitism and racism and othering.

“I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world, and I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked. Let’s fight for what’s right, keep smiling, keep loving one another. Let’s rebuild together. Thank you.”

In The Brutalist, Brody plays László Tóth, a fictional Hungarian modernist architect who survives the second world war, via its concentration camps, and ends up in the US.

There, he’s commissioned by tycoon Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) to design and build a huge community centre, with a chapel and swimming pool, in memory of his late mother. The film charts Tóth’s career, his combative relationship with his mentor, and his marriage to wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones).

In his review, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw praised Brody’s “angular fierceness and passion”, calling it “a career best for him, surely, and an advance on his performance in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist.”

Brody has taken almost all of the key awards in the run-up to the Oscars, including the Golden Globe for actor in a drama, the Critics Choice award and the Bafta. But his run was broken last weekend, when Chalamet scooped the Screen Actors Guild prize.

In January, a minor row broke out when it emerged that AI had been used to help smooth the Hungarian accents of Brody and Jones. Corbet was quick to dampen down the backlash, saying the performances were “entirely their own”.

The 97th Academy Awards are taking place in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O’Brien.

Read more about the 2025 Oscars:

• Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay

• Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña win supporting prizes

• No Other Land wins best documentary andFlow wins best animated feature

The West Bank-based film No Other Land has won this year’s best documentary feature Oscar.

The film, which is made by a Palestinian–Israeli collective, won out against competition from Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War and Sugarcane.

No Other Land premiered at the Berlin film festival last year where it won the Berlinale documentary award. The film was made between 2019 and 2023 and focuses on the steady forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta, a region in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces.

Speaking to a standing ovation, the film-makers thanked the Academy before co-director Basel Adra said he had recently become a father and hoped his daughter’s life would not be like his – “always fearing certain violence, home demolitions and forced displacement”.

He continued by saying his film reflected “the harsh reality” that his fellow Palestinians had endured for many years, “as we call on the world to take serious action to stop the injustice and stop the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.

Co-director Yuval Abraham then took to the stage to say that Palestinians and Israelis had made the film together “because together our voices are stronger. We see each other the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people must end.

“Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed. When I look at Basel I see my brother but we are unequal. we live in a regime where I am free under civilian law but Basel has to live under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.

He continued: “There is a different path. A political solution. Without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here, the foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.

“Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? That my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe. There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way.”

Despite acclaim, the film could not find distribution in the US and was self-distributed instead. The Guardian’s Adrian Horton called it “straightforward, un-sensationalized and completely infuriating” in a five-star review.

“I believe it’s clear that it’s for political reasons,” co-director Yuval Abraham told Deadline about the lack of formal distribution. “I hope that it will change. We basically decided not to wait on the theatrical release because the demand in the United States is now so high for the film, and we are now releasing it in almost 100 theaters independently. And we’re seeing everything is sold out.”

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October, Israeli forces have killed at least 48,200 Palestinians while forcibly displacing 2 million survivors.

Last year saw 20 Days in Mariupol win the award.

Read more about the 2025 Oscars:

• Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay

• Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña win supporting prizes

• No Other Land wins best documentary andFlow wins best animated feature

Israel has cut off humanitarian supplies to Gaza in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a change in the ceasefire agreement to allow for the release of hostages without an Israeli troop withdrawal.

The office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday it was imposing a blockade on Gaza because Hamas would not accept a plan which it claimed had been put forward by the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to extend phase one of the ceasefire and continue to release hostages, and postpone phase two, which envisaged an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

“With the end of phase one of the hostage deal, and in light of Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff outline for continuing talks – to which Israel agreed – Prime Minister Netanyahu has decided that, as of this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will cease. Israel will not allow a ceasefire without the release of our hostages,” it said in a statement. “If Hamas continues its refusal, there will be further consequences.”

After the announcement, Netanyahu’s spokesperson, Omer Dostri, wrote in a social media post: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.”

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Sunday called for “humanitarian aid to flow back into Gaza immediately”.

The existence and details of a Witkoff plan had not been confirmed by Washington by Sunday morning. A statement from Hamas called the suspension of aid a “war crime” and a violation of the ceasefire agreement. It said Netanyahu’s “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the [ceasefire] agreement”.

Hamas said it was committed to the originally agreed ceasefire that had been scheduled to move into a second phase, with negotiations aimed at a permanent end to the war, and it rejected the idea of a temporary extension to the 42-day truce.

A senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told Al Jazeera the group would release the remaining Israeli hostages only under the terms of the already agreed-upon phased deal.

During the 15 months of the Israel-Gaza war, the Netanyahu government repeatedly denied claims from aid agencies that it was blocking humanitarian deliveries, blaming the very limited flow on other factors. Before the ceasefire, UN officials had warned that widespread famine was imminent. In the six weeks of the first phase of the truce, deliveries returned to the prewar levels of about 600 trucks a day, mostly carrying food.

Aid officials said that even with the restoration of food deliveries, the lack of drinkable water, the near-complete destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics, the lack of shelter in the midst of winter, and the buildup of untreated sewage among the rubble could all be lethal to the surviving population of 2.2 million people.

Netanyahu made his announcement, which his office claimed had US backing, after the breakdown of talks in Cairo aimed at maintaining the ceasefire as it approached the end of its first six-week phase, over whether the truce should advance to a second phase.

The prime minister’s office said earlier on Sunday that it agreed on the adoption of what it described as Witkoff’s proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, which end on 20 April, during which half of the living hostages and half of the bodies of those who have died would be released.

On the conclusion of that temporary extension, the statement said: “If agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire, the remaining living and deceased hostages will be released.”

The first phase of the ceasefire chiefly involved the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, an increase in aid deliveries and a retreat of Israeli troops from some positions. The second phase requires a complete Israeli withdrawal and a more enduring cessation of hostilities.

The Witkoff plan as described by Netanyahu’s office appeared similar to Israel’s proposal for a six-week extension of the first phase of the ceasefire, with hostage releases, but it made no mention of the troop withdrawal that was part of the original truce agreement in January.

Hamas said the proposal made clear that Israel was seeking to disavow the deal it previously signed.

The Egyptian foreign ministry accused Israel of using starvation as “a weapon against the Palestinian people”, comments echoed by Qatar which said it “strongly condemns” Israel’s decision. Saudi Arabia also condemned the aid block and Jordan said Israel’s action “threatens to reignite” fighting in Gaza.

The European Union condemned what it called Hamas’s refusal to accept the extension of the first phase, and added that Israel’s subsequent aid block “risked humanitarian consequences”. Brussels called for “a rapid resumption of negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire”.

Hamas has not been directly participating in the talks in Cairo, but has been coordinating with Qatari and Egyptian officials who are at the negotiating table with US and Israeli delegations. The negotiators left Cairo on Friday night, and there was no sign of them reconvening late on Saturday.

An Israeli withdrawal would first involve a pullback from the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt but such a retreat could trigger the collapse of Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition, which would in turn force new elections, in which his political future would be uncertain.

Israeli political analysts have suggested that Netanyahu agreed to the ceasefire under pressure from Donald Trump, confident that the agreement would never reach a second phase. Since the start of the ceasefire, he prevented Israeli negotiators from discussing a second phase. Witkoff has, however, insisted that a second phase of the ceasefire deal should be implemented, to ensure the release of the remaining 59 hostages, only 25 of whom are thought to be still alive. Most Israelis also want the government to make a priority of freeing the hostages, but that position is opposed by the Israeli far right, without whom the coalition could not stay in power. The rightwing parties argue Israel’s priority should be the destruction of Hamas.

The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the decision to halt the flow of aid was “an important step in the right direction”.

Referring to Trump’s earlier threat to open the “gates of hell” on Gaza, Smotrich said in a social media post: “Now we need to open these gates as quickly and deadly as possible on to the enemy, until complete victory.”

There remains no agreement on who should run Gaza once an enduring end to the war can be agreed. Trump caused consternation and bewilderment early in February with the shock suggestion that the US should “own” Gaza, which would be somehow emptied of its more than 2 million Palestinian inhabitants to make way for a “Riviera on the Mediterranean”.

Briefing the Israeli press after Benjamin Netanyahu’s order to turn off the aid supply to Gaza, government officials claimed that the Palestinian territory had several months’ worth of food stockpiled from earlier deliveries. However, the announcement led to an immediate jump in prices of basic necessities in Gaza, with residents saying they had doubled.

Aid agencies say the population of Gaza remains highly vulnerable and that the blockade of humanitarian supplies to a civilian population is unacceptable in any circumstances.

Oxfam said: “Israel’s decision, to block aid to over 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as Ramadan begins, is a reckless act of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law. The government of Israel, as occupying power, has the responsibility to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach the population in Gaza.”

The international court of justice, weighing an allegation of genocide brought against Israel, has instructed Israel to facilitate aid deliveries to Gaza and its remaining population of 2.2 million. The international criminal court said when it issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last year that there was reason to believe Israel had used “starvation as a method of warfare”.

Israel has consistently denied allegations by aid organisations during the 15-month military campaign in Gaza that it was using food as a weapon of war, insisting that blockages in supplies were a result of other factors. Sunday’s announcement by Netanyahu’s office made no attempt to disguise the government’s actions or the goal behind them, which is to gain advantage at the negotiating table.

For the duration of the ceasefire, about 600 trucks a day have crossed into Gaza, carrying a total of 57,000 tons of food. This is a similar level to prewar aid deliveries, but aid agencies say that was for a population in a much better physical condition than the undernourished inhabitants now, and that also had the capacity to produce some of its own food.

The situation in Gaza now is far more precarious. Nearly 70% of the buildings across the coastal strip have been destroyed or damaged. In those circumstances, Oxfam called the aid that reached Gaza during the six-week ceasefire “a drop in the ocean”.

In its latest report, in late February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 876,000 Palestinians in Gaza still suffered from emergency levels of food insecurity, and 345,000 were facing catastrophic food insecurity.

Even in the six weeks of the ceasefire, Israel kept tight control of what was allowed in humanitarian shipments. Aid agencies complained that a lot of medical equipment was blocked on the grounds it was “dual use” and that water tankers were also blocked, leaving people dependent on wells, which in the wake of conflict are insufficient for the population’s needs.

There are about 1,500 water access points operating across Gaza, and the UN says water production and supply are at about a quarter of prewar levels.

Health issues remain a primary concern, with an estimated 80% of Gaza’s health infrastructure destroyed by the war and 1,000 medical workers killed. The World Health Organization has estimated there are up to 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza in need of medical evacuation, including 4,500 children.

“The health situation in the Gaza Strip is a catastrophe,” said Amjad al-Shawa, the director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network. He said that in Gaza City alone there was 180,000 tons of solid waste that Israeli authorities had blocked from being removed, with the result that sewage was overflowing. “That has severe health implications in the conditions now in Gaza,” Shawa said.

Kathleen Spencer Chapman, the external affairs director at Plan International UK, said: “Without the influx of humanitarian aid promised by the ceasefire agreement, thousands more could die from hunger and related diseases alone.”

At least 25 undercover police officers who infiltrated political groups formed sexual relationships with members of the public without disclosing their true identity to them, the Guardian can disclose.

The total shows how women were deceived on a systemic basis over more than three decades. It equates to nearly a fifth of all the police spies who were sent to infiltrate political movements.

Four of the police spies fathered, or are alleged to have fathered, children with women they met while using their fake identities to infiltrate campaigners.

One woman, known as Jacqui, has said her life was “absolutely ruined” after she discovered by chance that the father of her son was an undercover officer, more than 20 years after his birth. The officer, Bob Lambert, abandoned them when the son was an infant, claiming falsely that he had to go on the run abroad to escape being arrested by police.

Other women had intimate relationships lasting up to six years with men who concealed the fact they were undercover officers who had been sent to spy on them and their friends.

More than 50 women are so far known to have been deceived by the undercover officers, although the total is unknown at the moment and is likely to be higher. They unknowingly shared their most intimate lives with the spies and some attended weddings and funerals with them.

The women were devastated when they discovered how the men had betrayed them, leaving them profoundly traumatised and unable to form trusting intimate relationships again.

The scale of the deception has been revealed as ITV starts to broadcast a major series on what has become known as the “spy cops” scandal.

Starting on Thursday, the series – made in collaboration with the Guardian – shows how five women pieced together disparate clues to expose the real identities of their former boyfriends. The identities of its covert officers is one of the British state’s deepest secrets.

The women scoured obscure archives and even travelled abroad to unmask the men after they abruptly vanished from their lives using what turned out to be fake claims.

Their detective work over many years led to a series of revelations that have exposed the highly secret undercover operations to infiltrate political campaigns and misconduct by the spies, forcing the government to set up a public inquiry.

The long-running inquiry – led by the retired judge John Mitting – is examining decades of undercover deployments. A key part of the inquiry is looking at how the women were deceived and who among those supervising the undercover work knew about it.

David Barr, the inquiry’s chief barrister, told a hearing last year that it was not scrutinising whether sexual deception was justified. “It was not,” he said.

Years of campaigning and legal action by the women have forced police chiefs to apologise and admit that the “abusive, deceitful, manipulative” relationships resulted from “a wider culture of sexism and misogyny” within the police. The police have also admitted that the managers supervising the officers – imbued with that culture – failed to prevent the abuse from happening.

The deceptive relationships were a frequent part of intensely secret operations that began in 1968 and lasted more than 40 years.

The relationships started in the 1970s and continued until 2010. Only two of the 25 officers were women. Many of the identities of the police spies remain secret, meaning there is an unknown number of women who may be unaware that they had been deceived into sexual relationships.

In total, about 139 undercover officers – employed in two covert squads – spied on more than 1,000 political groups. Tens of thousands of mainly leftwing and progressive campaigners were put under surveillance.

Many of the spies created aliases based on the identities of dead children after searching through archives containing birth and death records to locate suitable matches.

The officers typically spent four years pretending to be campaigners while they infiltrated political groups, befriending activists while simultaneously hoovering up information about their protests.

They routinely gathered huge amounts of information about the personal lives of political activists, such as their holiday plans, sexuality and bank accounts.

As well as the 25, there are a further three spies who deny they had sexual relations under their fake identity.

A US company has successfully landed its spacecraft on the moon, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone – and the first to do so upright.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 8.34am GMT near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the moon’s north-eastern near side.

The mission control team in Austin, Texas, erupted in cheers as the firm’s CEO, Jason Kim, confirmed that the spacecraft was “stable and upright”.

That stood in stark contrast to the first private lunar landing in February 2024, from Texas-based Intuitive Machines, which toppled over upon arrival, dulling the achievement of being the first US moon touchdown since the crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972.

Blue Ghost’s programme manager, Ray Allensworth, highlighted the precision of the landing, noting it touched down within 100 metres of its target.

“We did do two hazard avoidance manoeuvres on the way down – that tells us that our software did work exactly as it needed to,” she told reporters.

The first image from the lander revealed rugged, pockmarked terrain that Blue Ghost had to autonomously navigate during its final descent, slowing from thousands of miles an hour to just two mph.

The mission is part of a $ 2.6 bn N asa partnership that aims to cut costs and support Artemis , the programme designed to return astronauts to the moon.

The golden lander – about the size of a hippopotamus – launched on 15 January onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, going on to capture spectacular footage of Earth and the moon during its 2.8m-mile journey.

It carries 10 instruments, including a lunar soil analyser, a radiation-tolerant computer and an experiment testing the feasibility of using the existing global satellite navigation system to navigate the moon.

It is expected to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on 14 March, when Earth blocks the sun from the moon’s horizon, and on 16 March will record a lunar sunset, offering insights into how dust levitates under solar influence – creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by the Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.

Blue Ghost will be followed on 6 March by Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, featuring its lander, Athena.

During the company’s first mission in February 2024, the lander touched down too fast, snagging a foot on the surface and toppling over, cutting operations short.

Landing on the moon is uniquely challenging due to its lack of atmosphere, making parachutes useless. Spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent over hazardous terrain.

A US company has successfully landed its spacecraft on the moon, marking only the second private mission to achieve the milestone – and the first to do so upright.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 touched down at 8.34am GMT near Mons Latreille, a volcanic formation in Mare Crisium on the moon’s north-eastern near side.

The mission control team in Austin, Texas, erupted in cheers as the firm’s CEO, Jason Kim, confirmed that the spacecraft was “stable and upright”.

That stood in stark contrast to the first private lunar landing in February 2024, from Texas-based Intuitive Machines, which toppled over upon arrival, dulling the achievement of being the first US moon touchdown since the crewed Apollo 17 mission of 1972.

Blue Ghost’s programme manager, Ray Allensworth, highlighted the precision of the landing, noting it touched down within 100 metres of its target.

“We did do two hazard avoidance manoeuvres on the way down – that tells us that our software did work exactly as it needed to,” she told reporters.

The first image from the lander revealed rugged, pockmarked terrain that Blue Ghost had to autonomously navigate during its final descent, slowing from thousands of miles an hour to just two mph.

The mission is part of a $ 2.6 bn N asa partnership that aims to cut costs and support Artemis , the programme designed to return astronauts to the moon.

The golden lander – about the size of a hippopotamus – launched on 15 January onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, going on to capture spectacular footage of Earth and the moon during its 2.8m-mile journey.

It carries 10 instruments, including a lunar soil analyser, a radiation-tolerant computer and an experiment testing the feasibility of using the existing global satellite navigation system to navigate the moon.

It is expected to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse on 14 March, when Earth blocks the sun from the moon’s horizon, and on 16 March will record a lunar sunset, offering insights into how dust levitates under solar influence – creating the mysterious lunar horizon glow first documented by the Apollo astronaut Eugene Cernan.

Blue Ghost will be followed on 6 March by Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission, featuring its lander, Athena.

During the company’s first mission in February 2024, the lander touched down too fast, snagging a foot on the surface and toppling over, cutting operations short.

Landing on the moon is uniquely challenging due to its lack of atmosphere, making parachutes useless. Spacecraft must rely on precisely controlled thruster burns to slow their descent over hazardous terrain.

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that US tariffs on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on Tuesday, but the president would determine whether to stick with the planned 25% level.

“That is a fluid situation,” Lutnick told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures.

“There are going to be tariffs on Tuesday on Mexico and Canada. Exactly what they are, we’re going to leave that for the president and his team to negotiate.”

Lutnick’s comments were the first indication from Trump’s administration that it may not impose the full threatened 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

He said the two countries have “done a reasonable job” securing their borders with the United States, though he maintained the deadly drug fentanyl continues to flow into the country.

Trump sowed confusion last week when he mentioned a possible 2 April deadline in connection with tariffs on Canada and Mexico. But he later reaffirmed the Tuesday deadline and said he would add another 10% tariff on Chinese goods that day, effectively doubling 10% duties imposed on 4 February.

Lutnick said Trump was expected to raise tariffs on China on Tuesday unless the country ends fentanyl trafficking into the US.

The damage caused by Donald Trump to the United States’ reputation is creating opportunities for China, particularly with regards to Taiwan, according to a retired senior colonel from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Speaking to the Guardian in Beijing, Zhou Bo said that Trump was damaging the US’s reputation “more than all of his predecessors combined”.

“By the end of his second term, I believe America’s global image will simply become more tarnished, its international standing will just go down further,” Zhou said. The people of Taiwan “know that America is going down”, which “might affect their mentality” with regards to China.

In 2024, Trump said Taiwan should pay the US for help to defend itself, despite the fact that the self-governing island already spends billions of dollars on arms from the US. Taiwan is reportedly considering purchasing a further $7-10bn worth of weapons this year, as the Taiwanese government explores a range of options for currying favour with the Trump administration.

“How confident would the Taiwanese be with the United States, especially with the Trump administration?” Zhou said. “Maybe the Taiwanese will one day consider, ‘Well, we cannot move away anyway. We will have to stay here. Maybe it’s not bad for us to be a member of the strongest nation on earth.”

Zhou retired as a senior colonel in 2020, having served more than 40 years in the PLA and in the ministry of defence. Now a senior fellow at the Centre for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University, he is a frequent commentator on China’s foreign affairs. “Should the World Fear China?”, published on 27 March, is a collection of Zhou’s essays written between 2013 and 2024, addressing themes such as managing US-China relations and China’s view on safeguarding its own interests.

One of the most pressing issues in the US-China relationship is the question of Taiwan. Beijing regards the self-governing island as part of its territory and has vowed to unify it with China, refusing to rule out the use of force. In 2024, Taiwan elected the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party into power for the third consecutive term. Nearly 70% of people in Taiwan identify as being Taiwanese rather than Chinese, with the share rising to 85% among under-35s, according to Pew Research.

The US does not formally recognise Taiwan but is its largest security backer. Trump’s position on Taiwan has been unclear. Despite suggesting that the US’s support of Taiwan may have a price, he is surrounded by China hawks who are strongly opposed to China’s claims on Taiwan. Earlier this month the state department removed a line from its fact sheet on Taiwan that stated: “We do not support Taiwan independence”, a move which was condemned by Beijing.

Zhou said the fate of Taiwan was not just up to the Taiwanese people. China’s population of 1.4 billion dwarfs Taiwan’s 23 million. “We can just not only think about what the Taiwanese think about it. We have to think about what mainlanders think about it.”

‘China is definitely indispensable’

Despite tensions over Taiwan, Zhou sees Trump as overall being “rather friendly” towards China, noting that the tariffs on Chinese imports announced in Trump’s first days in office were much lower than the 60% he had threatened.

In recent weeks, Trump’s comments on China have been relatively muted, in part because the US has been preoccupied with Ukraine – an issue which exploded in spectacular fashion when Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenksyy clashed in the Oval Office on Friday. .

In the early days of the war in Ukraine, western leaders leaned on China’s president, Xi Jinping, to use his influence in Russia to help end the conflict. But China has been an economic lifeline to Russia, enabling the continuation of the war. On 24 February – the third anniversary of the Ukraine invasion – Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke on a video call with Xi. The Chinese leader described China-Russia relations as “strong” and “unique” and “not affected by any third party”, according to a Chinese readout.

“The US really holds the key to resolving this issue,” Zhou said, rejecting the suggestion that China was becoming irrelevant in the peace talks. “China is definitely indispensable … China’s role will be there when it comes to the time of a ceasefire or armistice.”

Zhou said China might decide to send peacekeepers to Ukraine, along with other non-Nato European countries and countries from the global south, as peacekeepers from Nato countries would be viewed by Russia as “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. China is the second-largest contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping budget, after the US.

A widely held view in China’s academic and policy circles is that China has received too much criticism for its relationship with Russia. The two countries share a 4,200km border that was only fully agreed by both sides in 2003. Beijing is the more powerful partner in the relationship, but it has to balance Moscow’s interests too, the argument goes. The China-Russia relationship “is strong, but short of an alliance”, Zhou said. “I describe it as two lines in parallel. That means no matter how close they are, they won’t overlap.”

Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.

Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.

Excerpts from Sharabi’s moving interview on Israel’s Channel 12 “were shown to Trump, with English subtitles, and he was shocked once again, but also expressed great sympathy for those who survived captivity”, his brother Sharon said, according to a translation from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Israeli advocacy groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), have posted subtitled versions of the interview online.

When Sharabi and two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, were released on 8 February alongside after nearly 500 days in captivity, their physical condition outraged Israelis, and Trump. Sharabi was at home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas attacked on 7 October 2023.

In the Israeli television interview , Sharabi recalled being tied up, losing consciousness and experiencing extreme hunger.

“I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain,” he said. “The ropes are already digging into your flesh, and every movement makes you want to scream.”

Sharabi’s brother said the freed hostage is flying to the US aboard a plane provided by Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and a major Trump donor.

“Tomorrow morning, we’re boarding the plane with Mrs Adelson’s kind help. We’ll arrive to see Trump and explain to him up close the urgency of continuing the first stage or beginning the second stage – it doesn’t really matter,” Sharon Sharabi said, referring to the tenuous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

During the 7 October attack, after the armed group kidnapped Sharabi from his home, they shot the family dog, locked his wife Lianne and their daughters in a safe room, and set it on fire, according to Lianne’s parents, who spoke to the BBC. Sharabi only learned that his wife and daughters had been killed that day after his release.

Sharabi’s other brother, Yossi, was also taken hostage that day. He died early last year in Gaza, Israel’s military said, when the Israeli army bombed a building near where he was being held.

The Trump administration continues to support Israel amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Friday, it approved a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel, bypassing congressional review to supply more 2,000lb bombs used in the war against Hamas.

Following Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of a blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday, the White House said it “supports” Israel’s decision.

At a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the families of Israelis still being held in Gaza urged their government to stop violating the ceasefire/hostage deal that puts the lives of their loved ones at further risk.

Freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.

Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.

Excerpts from Sharabi’s moving interview on Israel’s Channel 12 “were shown to Trump, with English subtitles, and he was shocked once again, but also expressed great sympathy for those who survived captivity”, his brother Sharon said, according to a translation from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Israeli advocacy groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), have posted subtitled versions of the interview online.

When Sharabi and two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, were released on 8 February alongside after nearly 500 days in captivity, their physical condition outraged Israelis, and Trump. Sharabi was at home in Be’eri kibbutz with his British-born wife and their two teenage daughters when Hamas attacked on 7 October 2023.

In the Israeli television interview , Sharabi recalled being tied up, losing consciousness and experiencing extreme hunger.

“I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain,” he said. “The ropes are already digging into your flesh, and every movement makes you want to scream.”

Sharabi’s brother said the freed hostage is flying to the US aboard a plane provided by Miriam Adelson, the Israeli-American widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and a major Trump donor.

“Tomorrow morning, we’re boarding the plane with Mrs Adelson’s kind help. We’ll arrive to see Trump and explain to him up close the urgency of continuing the first stage or beginning the second stage – it doesn’t really matter,” Sharon Sharabi said, referring to the tenuous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

During the 7 October attack, after the armed group kidnapped Sharabi from his home, they shot the family dog, locked his wife Lianne and their daughters in a safe room, and set it on fire, according to Lianne’s parents, who spoke to the BBC. Sharabi only learned that his wife and daughters had been killed that day after his release.

Sharabi’s other brother, Yossi, was also taken hostage that day. He died early last year in Gaza, Israel’s military said, when the Israeli army bombed a building near where he was being held.

The Trump administration continues to support Israel amid the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Friday, it approved a nearly $3bn arms sale to Israel, bypassing congressional review to supply more 2,000lb bombs used in the war against Hamas.

Following Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of a blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday, the White House said it “supports” Israel’s decision.

At a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Sunday, the families of Israelis still being held in Gaza urged their government to stop violating the ceasefire/hostage deal that puts the lives of their loved ones at further risk.

A Lithuanian rower has been rescued off the Queensland coast after he was caught in a tropical cyclone’s 130km/h winds and monster waves.

Aurimas Mockus ran into trouble about 740km east of Mackay while attempting a 12,000km Pacific Ocean crossing from San Diego to Brisbane in his solo rowing boat.

HMAS Choules, a 16,000-tonne Royal Australian Navy landing ship, rescued Mockus on Monday morning and was returning to Sydney.

In a statement, V Adm Justin Jones, chief of joint operations, said the solo sailor had been rescued and was “safely onboard HMAS Choules undergoing a medical assessment”.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which led the search-and-rescue effort, confirmed that Mockus was on his way back to Australian shores after a two-day wait in the turbulent ocean waters due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Mockus activated his emergency beacon late on Friday as Tropical Cyclone Alfred sent strong winds and heavy seas his way.

A search and rescue mission began with a Cairns-based Challenger jet sent to find the rower failing to spot Mockus on Saturday but it did make contact with the tired rower.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority communicated with him via the rescue aircraft through an interpreter on Sunday.

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The agency said Mockus had not reported any major injuries.

A statement from Mockus’s shore team on Sunday night confirmed Mockus was not injured.

“According to the traveller, he has not suffered any serious injuries, is shovelling water from the boat and is asking for help as soon as possible.”

But the team said the situation was “stable and under control”. “Direct communication with the rescuers is maintained at all times.”

Mockus set off on the journey in October and was days away from reaching his final destination after rowing about 70 nautical miles a day. He was bracing for the “maximum power” of the cyclone on Thursday, saying he just needed to survive the next two days.

Weather conditions later eased but the Coral Sea was still within the category-two cyclone’s influence on Sunday, with winds up to 100km/h and five- to seven-metre seas, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority reported.

Mockus was attempting to join a short list of ocean rowers to make the Pacific crossing solo without stopping.

Brit Peter Bird was the first in 1983, followed by countryman John Beeden in 2015 and Australian Michelle Lee in 2023.

Fellow Australian Tom Robinson, who was attempting to become the youngest to accomplish the feat, albeit with a break in the Cook Islands, spent 265 days at sea before he was rescued off Vanuatu in 2023.

The 24-year-old Queenslander’s rowboat capsized, leaving him clinging naked to the hull for about 14 hours before he was rescued by a cruise ship that made a 200km detour.

Conan O’Brien briefly discussed the Los Angeles wildfires and “divisive politics” while delivering his opening monologue at the 97th Academy Awards.

“The people of Los Angeles have clearly been through a devastating ordeal and this needs to be addressed,” O’Brien said. “In moments such as this, any awards show can seem self-indulgent and superfluous, but what I want to have us do is remember why we gathered here tonight.”

He then celebrated those behind the scenes in Hollywood, like the “craftspeople, technicians, costumers” – the “hardworking men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making film”.

O’Brien continued: “Even in the face of terrible wildfires and divisive politics, the work, which this is about, the work continues. And next year, and for years to come, through trauma and joy, this seemingly absurd ritual is going to be here … the magic, the madness, the grandeur and joy of film worldwide is going to be with us forever.”

To kick off the show, the broadcast from the city’s Dolby Theater opened with a shot of the Hollywood sign, with the voice of Judy Garland saying There’s No Place Like Home. The Wizard of Oz reference gave way to a montage of movie scenes filmed in Los Angeles, from Mulholland Drive to Barbie, La La Land to Iron Man, Her to Everything Everywhere All At Once, ending with the message: We <3 LA.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, the stars of Wizard of Oz prequel Wicked, continued the tribute with performances of Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Grande) and The Wiz’s Home (Erivo). The duo then joined forces for Wicked’s signature track, Defying Gravity, before Erivo took on the climax with a shot of the glittering LA skyline in the background.

After their performance, O’Brien emerged from Demi Moore’s back in his monologue opener, paying homage to the grotesque visuals displayed in the Oscar-nominated film, The Substance.

“It’s Hollywood’s biggest night that starts at four in the afternoon,” said the comedian as he began. “But it’s the Oscars and I say let’s do this thing.”

In his more than 10 minute speech, O’Brien poked fun at Netflix (“Netflix leads all studios with an impressive 18, count them 18, price increases”), Oscar-nominated films The Brutalist (“I loved The Brutalist, I really did. I didn’t want it to end. And, luckily, it didn’t.”) and Conclave (“A movie about the Catholic church, but don’t worry”), and actress Karla Sofia Gascon (“Anora uses the F-word 479 times. That’s three times more than the record set by Karla Sofia Gascon’s publicist”).

O’Brien offered levity by taking aim, in small part, at Amazon. He said that founder Jeff Bezos had been seen on the red carpet, before panning over to a staged Amazon delivery driver throwing a package at the heels of an Oscar statue. He then noted that Bezos wasn’t seen inside the Dolby Theatre before panning back over to a man in black seemingly stealing the package that contained Bezos.

After showing off some old headshots of Zoe Saldana, Guy Pearce and a sonogram of Timothee Chalamet, O’Brien did a bit with Adam Sandler, who appeared in what has become his uniform these days: a hooded sweatshirt and basketball shorts.

O’Brien concluded his monologue with a musical number where he repeatedly said he wouldn’t waste time all while dancing beside a sandworm from Dune 2 playing piano and a dancing Deadpool.

Sunday night’s show marked the first time the late-night legend hosted the telecast. Fellow late night host Jimmy Kimmel previously hosted the Academy Awards in 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2024, revealing last year that he had turned down a request to host in 2025.

On the selection of O’Brien, the Academy chief executive officer, Bill Kramer, and the Academy president, Janet Yang, said in a statement that he’s the “perfect person to help lead our global celebration of film with his brilliant humor, his love of movies, and his live TV expertise”.

“His remarkable ability to connect with audiences will bring viewers together to do what the Oscars do best – honor the spectacular films and film-makers of this year,” they said.

Later in the broadcast, O’Brien brought out a team of firefighters who braved the Los Angeles fires to the stage.

“On behalf of everyone in greater los Angeles, thank you for all that you do,” he said, before introducing three of the Los Angeles fire department (LAFD) members to do some jokes of their own.

LAFD captain Eric Scott deadpanned: “Our hearts go out to all of those who have lost their homes and I’m talking about the producers of Joker 2.”

LAFD captain Jody Slicker took aim at the host himself, telling the audience: “It’s great to be back with Conan – usually when he calls, he’s stuck in a tree.”

Read more about the 2025 Oscars:

• Anora wins best original and Conclave wins best adapted screenplay

• Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña win supporting prizes

• Flow wins best animated feature

• Halle Berry ‘pays back’ Adrien Brody for 2003 Oscars kiss

A gynecologist who is accused of sexually abusing four women in Memphis, Tennessee, and reused unsanitary medical devices in unnecessary procedures was arrested on Friday.

Sanjeev Kumar, 44, was charged with sexual abuse, medical fraud and illicitly reusing unsanitary medical devices after he enticed four women to travel across state lines to his clinic, where he subjected them to sexual abuse under the guise of medical procedures.

Kumar’s arrest adds to a spate of cases in the US involving medical physicians being at least accused of violating patients in their most vulnerable moments.

Between 2019 and 2024, Kumar allegedly performed unnecessary gynecologic procedures using medical devices that were kept in unsanitary conditions and improperly reused, with some designated for single use or requiring sterilization.

According to the indictment authorities obtained against him, the 44-year-old Kumar did not inform patients about this practice before inserting the devices during procedures. Kumar, who worked at the Poplar Avenue Clinic, then billed the federal Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs for hysteroscopy biopsy services as if the treatments were medically necessary – and as if he had used new or properly sterilized equipment.

A hysteroscopy is a procedure used to examine the inside of the uterus, which involves inserting a thin, lighted tube through the vagina and cervix into the uterus, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

“Kumar was consistently the top-paid provider in Tennessee for Medicare and Medicaid for hysteroscopy biopsy services, and he profited substantially from these criminal acts,” said the acting US attorney for the western district of Tennessee, Reagan Fondren. “The allegations indicate that Kumar acted as a predator in a white coat and used the cover of conducting medical examinations to put his patients at risk and enrich himself.”

The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Nashville field office, Joseph E Carrico, said that there may be additional victims.

“It is important to remember nothing Dr Kumar has done was, or ever will be, your fault,” Carrico said. “We see time and time again that voices matter, and those who have stepped forward have empowered others to do the same.”

Younger adults are increasingly overwhelmed by in-person interaction and soothing themselves instead with sensory online content, according to a report on the wildly popular online content known as ASMR.

ASMR – autonomous sensory meridian response – describes a particular sensory phenomenon that is triggered by specific sights or sounds, which usually begins with a tingling sensation across the scalp and results in feelings of deep calm and relaxation.

Platforms such as YouTube and TikTok are crammed with thousands of these visceral videos, in which ASMR creators play with squishy slime, role-play braiding the viewer’s hair, whisper loving affirmations or paint the camera lens with spit, all aimed at stimulating these “tingles”.

Now the award-winning behavioural insights agency Revealing Reality has published a landmark report on the phenomenon, interviewing viewers and creators of ASMR content and analysing thousands of videos based on common triggers – such as exaggerated whispering, breathing and mouth sounds, tapping and crinkling sounds, gentle or fluttering hand movements – which many people use to help them unwind and sleep.

But the researchers note their “shock” at the “significantly higher” rates of younger people who said they found face-to-face interaction and noisy public places overstimulating, and question what the growing appeal of ASMR videos for this cohort reveals about their ability to navigate the messy unpredictability of offline life.

In a survey of more than 2,000 adults, Revealing Reality found a close correlation between age and sensitivity to both social and sensory stimuli: younger adults, aged 18-44, are more likely to find the world overstimulating, to want to shield themselves from external noise and face-to-face interactions as well as reporting greater enjoyment of ASMR.

In some cases, the age differences were pronounced:

• 47% of those aged 25-34 said they felt overwhelmed in noisy or busy places such as shopping centres or train stations, compared with 35% of those aged 55-64.

• 39% of those aged 18-24 felt the need to shut out noise, for example using noise-cancelling headphones in public, compared with only 21% of those age 45-54.

• Younger age groups were also more likely to prefer chatting to people online rather than face to face and to prefer to work alone rather than around other people.

The research comes as audiologists raise concerns about an increase in young people referred to them with auditory processing problems, which may be linked to the overuse of noise-cancelling headphones.

But with data from the UK and the US showing that, compared with previous generations, young people are spending less time out in the world and experiencing more anxiety, the report also questions the impact on those who “shun the messy unpredictability of in-person interaction and try to meet all their human needs through a screen”.

In detailed interviews, users of ASMR content explain the comfort and pleasure they take from it: the “visceral calming” and “escapism”, from a world that is “too much”, and where even a stranger appearing to give you their full attention is “a luxury experience”.

But the researchers question whether ASMR is “like digital soma” for “increasing numbers of young people seeking to meet their natural wish for comfort and connection, for tactile experiences and messy play, for intimacy and attention” through these “synthetic” experiences.

“What if we forget that sometimes it’s good for us to do things that feel hard? What if, in shying away from the messiness of embodied human interactions, we miss out on things we need as individuals and as a species – pheromones, non-verbal communication, adaptability, emotional growth.”

Likewise, they question whether life really is more overwhelming than it used to be, or whether by “opting out of its more abrasive aspects” people are reducing their ability to deal with them.

Jenny Radesky, an associate professor at the University of Michigan and expert in the interaction of technology and child development, said the report offered an opportunity to reflect on how young people built resilience. “If life feels overwhelming then ASMR is an easy, fast, accessible resource that calms them down without having to do the work demanded, for example, by practising breathing exercises or mindfulness.”

The difficulty was that ASMR calmed but did not necessarily enable young adults to reconnect with the wider world, she added. “Learning skills to apply at other times in your life is not usually an explicit part of ASMR. If you’re dependent on this content and you always need to access it to feel better, that is a problem for developing those skills independently. We need other options in young people’s real world, their social and physical context, so that there is more potential to learn resilience.”